C.R. Bard (NYSE:BCR) said today that it agreed to pay $181 million to acquire Liberator Medical (NYSE:LBMH), a direct-to-consumer distributor of durable medical equipment. The deal, expected to close during the 1st quarter next year, calls for Murray Hill, N.J.-based Bard to pay $3.35 per share for Liberator. The bid is a 36% premium over Liberator’s […]

Consumer technology titan LG Electronics (KRX:066570) entered the healthcare game for the 1st time with the announcement of its heart-rate-monitoring earphones that combine music with wearable fitness monitoring and smartphone-based record-keeping.

The FDA formally warned three providers of direct-to-consumer DNA tests about medical claims the companies make that the federal watchdog agency hasn’t approved.

The FDA wants the companies; American International Biotechnology Services, Lumigenix Inc and Precision Quality DNA &mdash; to either furnish evidence of device approval or make a case that their products don’t fall under the FDA’s purview.

Syneron Medical Ltd. (MKT:ELOS) consolidated its consumer business into a new spinout called Syneron Beauty.

The subsidiary of the Yokneam, Israel aesthetic device company will conduct the sales, marketing and distribution of all of Syneron’s consumer products. That includes Syneron’s home-use partnership with Procter & Gamble, the Tända light therapy products, the Mē hair removal system and the Fluorinex teeth whitening system.

The new unit will be led by Fabian Tenenbaum, who previously served as Syneron’s CFO.

The FDA is standing behind comments made by the chief of its medical device arm, Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, during testimony before a U.S. House committee last summer on direct-to-consumer genetic tests.

The remarks, made during a House Energy & Commerce Committee hearing on whether DTC genetic tests should be regulated by the Food & Drug Administration, passed un-noticed for the better part of a year until a video posted on FDAblog.org drew the attention of genetics researchers and bloggers this month.

The FDA may tighten regulations on at-home genetic tests and will ask an outside panel of experts to weigh in on the pros and cons of gene-based tests that consumers can order from their own home.

Though the FDA believes the biggest risks of direct-to-consumer tests are false positive or false negative results, the watchdog agency said the "DTC model has created public health and social quandaries" because the general public can have tests for serious medical issues delivered to their doorstep without consulting a physician.